Every year gives us hard-earned lessons, but 2024 felt particularly pedagogical for me and my inner professional circle. Since the human experience is full of overlap and connection, perhaps some of the lessons that changed my thinking this year can also be of service to this community.
Hard Data Won’t Always Change Someone’s Mind
As a scientist, I have always believed that hard data should change minds, including my own. I’ve taken this principle into my career and rely on having empirical evidence to back up claims I’m making or plans I’m proposing. For the most part, this is well-received: A data-informed plan is typically less risky than an unsubstantiated one. However, this is not how everyone wants to operate. I learned this year that some people’s minds aren’t changed by contrary evidence, so matter how strong the evidence is. In these cases, I needed to learn when to back up and realize that my efforts (and spreadsheets) would best be applied elsewhere.
Receiving Difficult Feedback Never Gets Easier
I used to imagine that as I matured in my career, hearing difficult (but constructive) feedback about my work would get easier. After 15 years, this has not been the case. This year, I reframed this: hearing difficult feedback may never feel “easy” because my work is important to me. It will always feel high-stakes and a bit anxiety-inducing. But, it’s okay to embrace that discomfort and take action once the big feelings settle. Constructive feedback is also difficult to give others as well, so understanding that the entire situation is uncomfortable but ultimately aimed at improvement has helped me accept that it will never be easy to hear about ways I may be falling short.
Your “Best” is Different Every Day
As I mentioned in my intro, I have seen colleagues go through some challenging professional and personal times this year. As a leader, I was often trusted with the details of these challenges so we could work out time off, alternative work schedules, and coverage. My colleagues would often say things like “well, it’s not much, but I could still come to stand-up and give an update”. In some situations, a quick update is that person’s best for the time being. I learned to see the difference between someone trying their best and someone barely trying. This also taught me to turn this empathy inward: my “best” is not the same day to day, either. As someone with a chronic illness, I’m going to have days with more energy and ability than others. As long as I’m doing my current best, not what was my best from another time, I’m happy with my work.
Big Tech’s Guidance is Almost Never for Us
I’m a part of several communities for user experience (UX) and research practitioners. After several years of being an active participant, I’ve come to realize that most of the guidance for UX practitioners in these communities is aimed at private industry/”big tech”. While there’s nothing wrong with this focus at all, it became obvious that government issues would never be centered or prioritized in those communities. This realization caused me to change my focus and begin seeking out (or creating!) spaces specifically for practitioners working in government tech and the challenges we face: Executive Orders, the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), government shutdowns, FedRAMP approval, legacy migrations of systems from the 80s, etc. This just means we may have to create the spaces we need to support each other.
Ann Aly (pronounced like Ali) is a UX and civic tech practice leader with a background in academic research, music, and education. She combines these experiences to lead teams improving federal government services, emphasizing communal leadership and transparency. Ann holds a PhD and MA (both in Linguistics) from UCLA, and an MA (Spanish and Portuguese) and BA (Music) from Florida State University. When she’s not asking too many questions, Ann enjoys woodworking, gardening, and exploring the Shenandoah Valley woodlands near her home.
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